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Monday, 18 April 2016

A US Air Force
reconnaissance plane was barrel-rolled by a Russian SU-27 fighter jet in an
“unsafe and unprofessional” manner during a routine flight in international
airspace, American officials said today, exacerbating tensions between the
rival powers.

The incident on
Thursday occurred when a Russian jet “performed erratic and aggressive
maneuvers” as it flew within 50 feet of the US aircraft’s wing tip over the
Baltic Sea, a spokesman for European Command said.

He said the US plane
never entered Russian territory.

This encounter comes
just days after the US Embassy in Moscow issued formal concerns over Russian
fighter jets flying very close to the USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea this
week. Close encounters between Russian military aircraft and US warships have
become increasing common in recent months.
— PTI

The Narendra Modi
government appears to have taken two steps forward and one step back with
regard to the signing of the 'foundational agreements', which the United States
has been pressing for since 2004. One of the three - Logistics Exchange
Memorandum Agreement (LEMA) - has been "agreed in principle" during
the visit by US Defence Secretary Aston Carter, but for some incomprehensible
reason deferred by a "few weeks" or a "few months" for the
actual signatures.

Typically, the Modi
government has not cared to consider public opinion - although this would be a
landmark event, since the pact will give the US forces access to Indian
military bases, which signifies a great leap forward in independent India's
foreign and security policy doctrines.

What necessitates
this breath-taking leap of faith at the present juncture remains unclear. The
previous UPA government had profound reservations about signing the
foundational agreements, as they'd erode India's strategic autonomy and
adversely affect its independent foreign policies. The LEMA remains an unequal
pact insofar as India is not a global power, it does not have an
interventionist agenda abroad and has no need to access US military bases for
logistics, and, of course, none of the friendly countries with which India
holds military exercises ever demanded such pacts as an underpinning of
cooperation.

The perception will
arise in the region and beyond that India has shed its traditional aversion to
military alliances and non-aligned policies and proposes to bandwagon with the
US. Such a perception does not do India good. Specifically, the perception that
India is drifting into an alliance with the US will generate apprehensions in
the Russian mind about defence cooperation with India. Russia has been and
continues to be the principal source of cutting-edge military technology for
the Indian armed forces. Despite the high-sounding rhetoric of the US-Indian
Defence Technology and Trade Initiative and 'Make in India', the ground reality
is that so far what has happened under these rubrics is, plainly put, zilch.
Mr. Carter's visit did not result in a single major project actually taking
off.

On the other hand,
the US has openly sought to get India on board its so-called 'rebalance' in
Asia. With a view to countering China's rise, the US proposes to create an
alliance system in Asia - an 'Asian NATO' - in which it envisages a pivotal
role for India, alongside Japan and Australia. The US game plan is to co-opt
India into an alliance system based on the 'interoperability' of the armed
forces which of course will demand the use of similar weapon systems. Within
the NATO system, what the US ensures is that the 'interoperability' requires
extensive use of US-made weapons, which in turn cements Washington's
trans-Atlantic leadership role in decision-making on all political and military
issues.

In the Indian
context, a prime US motive will be to erode the Indo-Russian strategic
partnership. The 'isolation' of Russia is a major global objective of the US.
On the contrary, any atrophying of strategic ties with Russia is fraught with serious
consequences for India's long-term interests as an emerging power in a
multipolar world order. India has shared interests with Russia within the ambit
of BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Equally, any close
identification with the US' rebalance strategy in Asia can create serious
complications and distrust between India and China. The point is, India is not
seeking confrontation with China. Its focus is on normalising the relations
with China through a steady process at the bilateral level. Indeed, the UPA
government achieved remarkable success in this direction. An intensive dialogue
at the top levels of leadership became a regular feature of our diplomacy and
the two countries were able to reach a point where they agreed that they had
much more in common by way of shared interests than the differences that might
keep them apart. Unfortunately, the Modi government has not kept up the UPA's
momentum of high-level dialogue.

Added to this, if
India gravitates toward the US-sponsored alliance system to counter China, the
delicate equilibrium in the Sino-Indian normalisation process is sure to get
affected. It stands to reason that India's long term advantage lies in
developing a new type of relationship with China based on equality, mutual
respect, and balanced interests. At the end of the day, China remains a unique
- even irreplaceable - source of investment and trade for India's development
in the short and medium term, and nothing should be allowed to jeopardise it.

What explains the
Modi government's reticence about signing the LEMA during Mr. Carter's visit?
The only plausible explanation could be that the government is hard-pressed to
explain how this paradigm shift in post-independent India's foreign and
security policies is justifiable or is in the national interest. The
nervousness hides a guilty conscience that without taking recourse to public
discussions over the pros and cons of such a major policy shift and lacking a
national consensus in the matter, the country is being hustled to go in this
direction. A healthy democratic practice demands that the relevant issues in
such a policy matter are debated in Parliament even if the LEMA is not a treaty
that requires ratification. This was the course taken by the UPA government
while concluding the India-US civil nuclear agreement in 2008.

The shocking thing
in all this is that the Modi government stands on a platform of strident
nationalism. The Sangh Parivar, which mentors the government, even claims
monopoly to judge what is 'anti-national' on university campuses. And yet in
this case the RSS in particular is betraying a comprador mentality by making
India a junior partner to the US for reasons best known to it. The doublespeak
is simply stunning. What explains such extreme vulnerability to US pressure? If
the US expects them to bend, our hollow men are only too willing to crawl. What
is their Achilles' heel? Their strident nationalism smacks of hypocrisy..

aisalmer: With about
30,000 soldiers in action, the Indian Army is conducting a major exercise
'Shatrujeet' by the elite Mathura-based Strike Corp in desert area of Mahajan
field firing range of Rajasthan, wherein the capability to strike, deep into
the enemy territory in an integrated air-land battle environment is being
evaluated. Now, this exercise is in the last phase and next week on April 22,
army chief D S Suhag is likely to come and review the exercise.

The focus of the
exercise is to achieve joint and seamless coordination among all the forces in
a nuclear biological chemical warfare scenario so as to deliver the enemy, a
lethal punch with full might at a lightening speed. In order to achieve this
aim, high-end technology and all the latest multi-dimensional modern weaponry
at the disposal of the armed forces is being utilised. In the last decade or
so, there has been a paradigm shift in India's offensive doctrine and capability
and such exercises are undertaken regularly by the Army to train its troops in
their offensive role and weapon usage.

In the changing
scenario, the Indian Army looking to the increasing new challenges across the
border, is trying to make its war talent strong and better in short notice time
especially in the context of fighting war in desert.

Lethality and might
of Indian Army with Indian Air Force was fully on display in this exercise.
Most modern equipment in the inventory of the Indian Army fired with precision
in cohesion with each other with the main attraction being T-90 tanks, which
are counted amongst the most technologically advanced tanks in the world. The
tanks are capable of firing a variety of ammunition and missiles with sharp
accuracy both by day as well as night.

Defence spokesman
Manish Ojha said that Indian Army undertakes such exercises at regular
intervals at different levels to ensure forces are provided real war-like
situations and are kept in high state of battle readiness. The formation and
units have been undergoing operation-oriented training for past two months.
Post-preparatory training manoeuvres at subordinate units and formation level,
the Strike 1 is now poised to conduct integrated operational manoeuvres to
validate its operational plans in simulated high tempo battlefield environment
and terrain.

Indian Army chief
General Dalbir Singh on Sunday visited Jammu and Kashmir where he met senior
commanders amid fresh bouts of violence in the state that have left five
civilians dead.

Army spokesperson Colonel
SD Goswami said the chief met commanders of the 14, 15 and 16 Corps at Northern
Command headquarters at Udhampur near here “to take stock of the situation” in
the state following deaths of civilians in alleged firing by army men in north
Kashmir’s Kupwara district.

The general arrived
on a day-long visit to the state.

The Kashmir Valley
has been on the boil since Tuesday after the death of at least five civilians
in clashes with security forces.

The trouble began
after rumors that a soldier molested a college girl in Handwara of the border
district.

http://www.newsghana.com.gh/indian-army-test-its-operation-abilities/

Indian Army Test Its
Operation Abilities

The Indian Army is
currently conducting a major exercise in the deserts of the western state of
Rajasthan to test its operation capabilities during a battle.

The military
exercise， titled
Shatrujeet， is being undertaken by the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh’s elite Mathura-based Strike 1 corps， the Indian Defense Ministry
said.